February 2010

February 28, 2010

My comment on actor Amitabh Bachchan’s apparent lack of political convictions or loyalties, which was published by the IANS wire worldwide, has prompted many fairly strong reactions. It is a mix of criticism and endorsement of my view.

One recurring theme in the readers’ reactions is that they cannot decide whether I am actually defending Bachchan or being tongue-in-cheek. There is no point in my explaining that if the comment itself does not clarify what I am thinking. I think it is quite clear what I am saying.

Gulf Times of Qatar carried the comment today and I have received some response from the paper’s readers. They cannot decide whether I am actually defending him or just being sarcastic. I would like to keep it that way.

For the sake of record out of ten pieces I write barely one concerns a show business figure and that too when it has a slightly larger societal and political context.

February 27, 2010

‘Bharat Mata’ (Mother India), is one of Husain paintings that got him in trouble.

Painter Maqbool Fida Husain’s wrenching separation from India and his decision to accept an honorary citizenship of Qatar merely add to an extraordinarily dramatic life he has led. At 95 he needs home quite as much as he does not need it.

India’s most celebrated, unquestionably brilliant and commercially most successful artist has been living in an undefined exile since 2006 after his life went into a tailspin over explicit paintings of Hindu deities that he had painted in the 1970s. Hindu zealots wrapped him up in dozens of lawsuits all over the country and came menacingly close to physically harming him in what was at best a manufactured controversy. In a country where deities have been routinely portrayed either as sensuous paintings or curvaceous statues, the only reason this was used to whip up outrage was because Husain happens to be Muslim. It is ironic because he is one of India’s most secular artists. Some Hindu groups even asked him to paint Islamic images explicitly if he considered himself a free-spirited artist. Their point being that because Hinduism has a long history of tolerance, Husain did not have the right to push the limits of artistic freedom.

There is no specific reason why Husain cannot return to India. His supporters, and he has a vast number of those, say if he returns he would find the country welcome him without reservation. His critics, and he has an equal number of those as well, used to say till recently he can come back provided he apologizes for his paintings. Now that he has reluctantly accepted the citizenship of Qatar there seems to be a change of heart even among those who condemn his art. Both the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the fountainhead of all rightwing Hindu groups, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one of its most successful progenies, have said they have no objection to Husain’s return. However, it is the more extreme Hindu fringe groups such as the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad that Husain may be unsure about.

I met Husain nearly 25 years in Bombay for a long interview at his apartment in Cuffe Parade. He was 70 and had already earned all of the formidable reputation that he has now. I looked for a clipping of that interview but could not find it. I have some vague memories about our conversation. I remember asking him whether it was accurate to say that his lines often tend to be architectural. He bushy eyebrows, which were already silvery white then, darkened as leaned forward and said something like, “In its raw, sketch form all paintings can look architectural.”

Some of you may not know that among Husain’s most famous quirks (I do not think if this one is a quirk at all) is that he generally goes about unshod everywhere. Yes, he does not even wear socks. I told him why I think he prefers to be bare feet. In his early career Husain used to paint giant Hindi cinema billboards which sometimes required him to stand on a scaffolding in front of them. Many billboard painters would tell you that it is easier to balance without any shoes and certainly without socks. Husain merely smiled and said, “That’s interesting.” I have seen him walk to his gallery in Mumbai without shoes. Husain has been thrown out of places that enforce a dress code. All that only adds to his folklore as a great painter.

Husain understood before anybody else the value of creating stories and idiosyncrasies over and above his quintessential talent. He recognized very early that people are drawn to the superficial first and then perhaps to something more substantial and deeper. Trimmings are a great way to lure people in. They want the art as much as the artist. So while there may be more talented painters than him in India, there is none quite like Husain in creating folklore about his art. I remember his series on the celebrated Marathi play ‘Ghasiram Kotwal.’ He would sit in the audience during many shows before he came up with striking paintings.

Being perhaps the most prolific Indian painter, it is hard to quantify Husain’s work but it could be in thousands. After over seven decades as a painter, his art is on autopilot.

Although Husain has led a nomadic life for the better part of his 95 years, I am sure he wants to return to India as he prepares for the inevitable.

February 26, 2010

An amusing aside to the first India-Pakistan talks in 14 months was the suggestion by The News of Pakistan that their country’s delegation should include a gifted face reader.

Before the talks The News suggested the inclusion of Afrasiab Hashmi, the director-general for South Asia in Pakistan’s foreign ministry, who is “is an expert in judging a person’s character or personality from that man’s facial characteristics and structure.” The art of face reading, which I have dabbled in for over 30 years, is known as physiognomy. In my 20s I used to be frighteningly accurate but the passage of years compounded by existential vagaries have blunted a lot of my natural gift.(I sound so full of bunkum right now.) There was a time when I found it difficult to strike friendships because I could size up potential friends so quickly that it took away the mystique of gradual discovery.

The News story prompted me to dust off my face reading skill and try it out on Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir who represented his country at the talks with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao. It always helps to be close to the subject one is reading but since I am in Chicago and Bashir was in New Delhi, I have no choice but to depend on online broadcasts.

My first impression of Bashir was that most of what he was saying at a news conference after the talks was lip-deep. He had no faith in his own utterances, not because he did not believe in it but because he had an overarching sense of futility about it all. I am quite sure that at several points during the talks he may have felt like taking his own initiatives to move the dialogue to a more productive level rather than waiting to go back to Islamabad and running it by his political bosses. I do not think he was happy just being the messenger of his country’s fractured polity.

I can tell you with a fair degree of certainty that he does not like his counterparts in India’s foreign policy establishment. He thinks of them as crafty and manipulative.

These are just some of my observations based on what I saw during his news conference.

February 25, 2010

It would be fair to say that I am turning into a bilious, cynical rejectionist but the only part I would object to is “turning”. I don’t think I am turning, I always was. And why do I subject you to this superfluous personal assessment? Here is why.

I was watching the NDTV Indian of the Year awards, not for anything else but to fortify my bilious, cynical rejectionism. All awards and honors are bogus, some more than others. They mean absolutely nothing. At this particular award ceremony so many egos were stroked so much that I thought some of them might squirt in sheer, unbounded ecstasy.

What exemplified my point was the embarrassing juvenalian display by the 44-year-old Shah Rukh Khan who sang to fellow actor Priyanka Chopra (on live video link from San Francisco) saying something to the effect “Marry me marry me” (reworking the famous Beatles number Let it be). Chopra was equal to this suckfest with a demure fakery. Perhaps I am imagining but I even sensed that others in the hall were squirming in their seats.

Foreign Policy asked me to write a brief curtain-raiser on the tentative resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan, 14 months after it was violently disrupted by the November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks. Here is the link to the story.

I noticed this morning that the piece has attracted one comment from a reader called Ahson Hasan. Being a reflexive peacenik it is gratifying to know how strongly Hasan feels about the need for peace in the region.

“Let the talk of missile development and nuclear proliferation give way to talk of human development. Let the job of building confidence begin and the history of mistrust and suspicion come to an end. Let the great civilization of this extraordinary part of the world flourish once again. Let the voice of its poets speak of peace. Let merchants and traders of business interact ; let goods flow freely between markets.Most importantly, let the South Asian children live, without fear and without rancor, united in hope, speaking the common language of a people at peace with themselves. Let cynicism give way to brotherhood and mutual respect,” Hasan writes.

February 24, 2010

Here is a (trillionth) perfect example of gratuitous comment seeking by the media. But before that a bit of a background.

When Tiger Woods referred to his Buddhist faith during his public apology, I knew instantly that some journalist would bring in the Dalai Lama into the story. The fact that the world’s most famous Buddhist monk and a lifelong celibate to boot was in town when the world’s most famous Buddhist sex addict was making his first public apology was just too much for the media to resist putting it together. Even by the normally obvious seeking standards of the media this was really too obvious.

The Associated Press was granted a brief interview with the Dalai Lama in Los Angeles. The best way to make that brief interview memorable was asking him about Tiger Woods and his problems. The Dalai Lama did not know who Tiger Woods was. He was given a quick crash course in Woodsian peccadilloes and the Buddhist master was ready with a response.

"Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that's important," he said. "Self-discipline with awareness of consequences."

Later on Larry King Live the Dalai Lama expanded a little bit on the discipline aspect saying he did not mean discipline of the kind “totalitarian regimes” impose. We all know which “totalitarian regime” in particular he had in mind.

I see this as a waste of his the Dalai Lama’s time. Why should he have an opinion on a billionaire golfer’s adulterous lifestyle merely because he happens to share the Dalai Lama’s faith? I am not even going to ask—what is wrong with an adulterous lifestyle? It may be tiresome and marriage ending but other then that what is wrong with it?

February 23, 2010

With Pakistan suddenly starting to smoke out important members of the Taliban, India must recalibrate its strategy as it goes about resuming bilateral dialogue on February 25.

Days after the arrest of the Afghan Taliban’s second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Pakistan has now captured Mullah Abdul Kabir, who is believed to be a senior member of the Quetta Shura, the Taliban leadership council suspected to be operating out of Pakistan. These arrests, while very significant and praiseworthy, are not without questionable motivation. They help consolidate Pakistan’s claim to be a decisive player in the future of Afghanistan.

While Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan and whether it would allow any involvement by India at all is a separate track altogether, I am more interested in its impact of the country’s deeply fractured relations with India. Islamabad can somewhat craftily argue that it would do even more to help Washington stabilize the region (as evident in the Taliban arrests) as long as it is assured that New Delhi is not breathing down its neck from the east.

It is in this context that the arrests strengthen Pakistan’s hand as its Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir arrives in New Delhi for the February 25 talks with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao. From the Indian standpoint it is equally important to neutralize Pakistan’s alibi of the the looming threat from the east by in fact resuming the bilateral dialogue. That it is being done despite the fact that nothing of any great significance has been done to run aground those responsible for the November, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks should be seen as part of a larger strategy.

The February 25 meeting is not expected to yield anything of a lasting value but to the extent that it puts the two neighbors back on the path to negotiations it is important. After all there is no other region where three nuclear armed neighbors live in profound suspicious of one another with a history of serious conflicts. I, of course, refer to India, China and Pakistan.

February 22, 2010

The wire service IANS has a disturbing report about signs of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) attempting to reactivate Sikh separatist groups in India.

For those of you who may not be aware, the decade of the 1980s witnessed what until then was India’s most violent insurgency in the state of Punjab, where separatists calling themselves Khalistanis, unleashed unnerving violence followed by equally brutal response from the state. Even in the 1980s Pakistan’s complicity was repeatedly mentioned. This reported new development is fraught with serious consequences for India already battling a large number of deeply disaffected groups.

Ironically, this report comes to light even as at least one Sikh man was beheaded by the Taliban in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

By Jaideep Sarin and Parminder Singh Bariana

Chandigarh, Feb 22 (IANS) Security around top leaders and vital installations in Punjab has been increased following intelligence reports of Pakistan-based Sikh separatist groups trying to recruit youth from the US and India to revive terrorism in the state.

Reports of a meeting between officials of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) chief Wadhawa Singh in December has raised concerns among security agencies in the state.

A top-secret intelligence communication from Punjab Police to security agencies last week states: "To execute this task, Wadhawa Singh is making efforts to mobilize volunteers from Punjab as also from the US, who could be made to travel to India via Malaysia or Singapore." IANS is in possession of the document.

Security agencies have been asked to take appropriate security measures to protect VIPs and important installations across the state.

The VIPs said to be in the target list of the terror outfits include Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu.

Bittu, who is the Punjab Youth Congress president, is the grandson of former state chief minister Beant Singh, who is credited with wiping out terrorism in the state in the early 1990s with 'super-cop' K.P.S. Gill.

Beant Singh was assassinated by a human bomb here Aug 31, 1995.

The intelligence report says that Bittu is particularly being targeted by the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF).

Another intelligence report from Punjab Police has said terror groups could target shrines in Amritsar as well as the Nangal Dam and railway stations at Ropar, Ludhiana and Pathankot.

"We will not let any of these groups revive terrorism in the state," Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said here. "We are taking the intelligence inputs quite seriously. We do a day-to-day monitoring of things. Security is being stepped up as required," Jalandhar Inspector General of Police Sanjiv Kalra told IANS.

In the last two months, Punjab Police have found explosives, grenades and weapons outside vital installations at various places in the state.

Several kilograms of explosives were found Jan 19 outside an Indian Oil LPG bottling plant near Nabha town in Patiala district. Two grenades were found five days later outside an Indian Air Force (IAF) establishment at Zirakpur near Chandigarh.

A car laden with explosives was found last month outside the IAF station at Halwara in Ludhiana.

Two people were arrested in Patiala Sunday. Eight kilograms of explosives and 40 gelatin sticks were recovered from their possession.

Though the terrorist-secessionist movement for Khalistan was comprehensively defeated in 1993, there remain a handful of terrorist outfits chiefly supported by Pakistan and some NRI Sikh groups who continue to propagate the ideology of Khalistan.

One of the most prominent among them is the BKI, among the oldest and most organized Khalistan terrorist groups. It is headed by Wadhawa Singh, who is reportedly hiding in Pakistan. Mehal Singh is the deputy chief of BKI. Both of them are among the 20 terrorists whom India wants Pakistan to extradite.

February 21, 2010

In some sense writing is a selfish pursuit. A writer is also a hoarder who wants to hold on to plots, perspectives and phrases lest someone else snatched those. As I embark on my book on my hometown of Ahmedabad, I am on the lookout for any significant pieces about the city if only to ensure that what I have to say does not get said before I say it. Silly but true.

It is rare to come across much material about the city in the Western media for many reasons, not the least because of its remarkable inability to project itself. This morning proved me wrong when I found a substantial piece in the Wall Street Journal headlined ‘An old City’s New Approach’ by Margot Cohen. It is a lovely piece that begins with the city residents’ penchant for feeding birds. Bird feeders or “chabutaras” as they are called have long been part of Ahmedabad’s life. I remember walking past at least three on way to school some 40 years ago.

Margot’s basic point in the story’s lead is that a city that feeds birds as a passion is “easy to love.” At one level she is right but then there are things done in Ahmedabad, some of which by the very people who feed those birds, that make you wonder whether this ornithological compassion is a bit of a red herring. (Excuse the poorly mixed metaphors.) But that story you can read in my book. I am plugging something that has not even been started yet.

Speaking of writing being a selfish pursuit and a writer hoarding plots, perspectives and phrases, I deluded myself that the 600th anniversary of Ahmedabad’s founding next year may slip by without anyone other than I noticing it. The Journal piece refers to it and how there may be a race to win for the city the status of a heritage site from the United Nations. Ahmedabad in its current avatar was founded in 1411 by Sultan Ahmed Shah, although the more zealous inhabitants are likely to challenge that date vociferously and say that life predated here by several centuries.

In so much as the 600th anniversary affords Ahmedabad an opportunity to draw far more agreeable attention to its many strengths and achievements, I think it is a great idea to sell it. (An interesting sentence just took birth in my mind about Ahmedabad and selling which I have tucked away for the book.)

February 20, 2010

A Gallup country favorability ratings poll has warmed many Indian hearts. India features sixth on the rating behind Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Japan and Israel.

The two countries, which are often a source of trouble for India, namely China and Pakistan figure at the 11th and 14th respectively. In fact, both China and Pakistan are not favored by the majority of those who polled.

Personally, I do not understand what being sixth or even the last on such ratings mean in practical terms, but I suppose it is good to be liked. With 10 percent favorability rating Iran features the last, which is no surprise. What is a surprise, however, is that Iraq manages only 23% favorability rating. It looks like the US endeavor to turn the country around after ousting Saddam Hussein has not worked well at all.